Say It out Loud - The 1921 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 29th March, 1921

From the book: Say It out Loud by Mohamed Adhikari

The 1921 Presidential Address, Cape Town, 29th March, 1921¹

Seventeen years ago, in my first presidential address, which was delivered in Cape Town, I exposed and denounced the policy, which permitted the exploitation of the Coloured races of South Africa. I said that " the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal were simply Imperial prisons for Coloured people, who are but goods and chattels in the hands of the country's exploiters. " Needless to say, I was charged by the Cape Town Press with indulging in "incendiary talk, " " clap-trap, " and " a great many ill-informed banalities. "

Again, in Kimberley in 1913, in another presidential address, when reviewing the position of the Coloured races immediately after the consummation of Union, I once more drew attention to the ill-treatment of the Coloured people in the O.F.S., and said "there is also a revival of persecution in the Free State. The old laws of the dark days are being enforced with relentless rigour. The sanctity of homes is violated and natives are compelled to carry passes."

It will be remembered that while the Conference was sitting I stated that 280 of our women ­ Coloured women ­ were languishing the Free State gaols because they refused to carry passes. Once more I was denounced, this time by the whole press of South Africa, with the exception of the Pretoria News, whose editor has ever stood boldly forth as the champion of British ideals of justice.

Tonight, I again propose to call attention to the position of the Coloured races in the Union, and in doing so I propose to make a cursory survey of the history of South Africa ­ a history which it must be admitted by every impartial student is one long uninviting record of racial strife. From the day that Van Riebeeck landed in 1652, history records one prolonged series of struggles. First the object was to conquer the aboriginal inhabitants, then it was a long silent struggle between the two great white races for political supremacy, and now the two are "fighting like devils" for conciliation and racial fusion.

At one time a large section of white South Africa lived a patriarchal life. Their idea of liberty and freedom was that of the mediaeval ages. They trekked to seek liberty and to ensure independence from constitutional restraints, and in their quest they violated the fundamental principles of human rights in their contact with the aboriginals. Soon there became evident two ideals, the one was the higher, that of British civilisation, which asserted itself principally in the Cape Province, spasmodically and only partially; the other was, as I have said, the ideal of the mediaeval ages, which was founded in ignorance and a misconception of the basic principles of liberty and justice and human rights.

There was a time, in the old Cape Colony, when it may be said that the Government was instituted for common benefit when it was founded upon principles, which made it "capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety. "

Unfortunately, that form of government has disappeared, and the political, civic and social rights of the Coloured races are at times completely lost sight of. A backveld conservatism of the mediaeval mind is even today painfully noticeable, acting as a check to the progress of the Coloured races, and at times sorely oppressing them. In those parts of South Africa where the restraints of civilisation failed as a salutary check to personal liberty and personal greed, laws and proclamations were issued, little by little, with the avowed object of defining the status of the Coloured races; but in reality they were merely repeated denials of some one portion or other of the heritage of human beings. That pernicious principle has crept into our own Province until we find ourselves excluded here, in this once liberal Colony, from our political birthright by legal barriers and constitutional ramparts that it is the sacred duty of our organisation to batter down by any means we can devise.

The A.P.O. was formed for the purpose of fighting for the principle, which Lord Milner declared in 1901 to a deputation of Coloured people of the Western Province. Lord (then Sir Alfred) Milner said he felt it was an opportune moment for the Coloured people to make a demonstration of their loyalty ... and he asserted, " it is not race or colour, but civilisation which is the test of a man's capacity for political rights. " That declaration was in conformity with the principles, which obtained in the Cape Colony at the time, and it was the violation of that principle in the Treaty of Vereeniging that brought the A.P.O. into existence. We have fought together for a period of twenty years in a galling struggle with a united front. The issue has been appallingly dismal at times. We lost part of our political rights, which we possessed in 1901; but I am sure you are determined to maintain the struggle in the face of all opposition. We must carry on the fight in the firm conviction that ­

" Freedom's battle once begun,

Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,

Though baffled oft, is ever won. "

Yet we trust the goal will be reached ere long, and I trust that I may be allowed to express the hope that ere long I shall be able to join with you in welcoming at least the removal of the Colour Bar in industrial operations in the Transvaal, and soon too the restoration of the political rights of which we were ruthlessly and unjustly deprived in 1910, and the recognition that "civilisation and not colour or race or creed will be the test for the claim to political rights."

In the agitation, which we must maintain at all hazards, it is well to remember a few leading incidents in the constitutional history of the relations between the white and the Coloured races of South Africa. No one on reading the uninspiring history of South Africa can fail to observe that the colonists of the Western Province have invariably been more liberal than those of other parts of the country, and that our people willingly and with ready assistance fought side by side with the white colonists in their efforts to secure Constitutional Government, just as they fought side by side with them in the Great War to protect the weak.

You, Mr. Mayor, occupy a position in Cape Town, which once played a leading part in political life. In 1850 the Board of Commissioners of Cape Town took the lead in the agitation for representative government for the Colony. The Chairman of that Board called meetings and headed the petitions, and in that agitation the Coloured people joined. In other parts of the Colony the Coloured people feared the British settlers. For instance, in Fort Beaufort, they threw in their lot with us in the west, and petitioned Her Majesty in favour of representative institutions. The framers of the Cape of Good Hope Constitution Ordinance were more liberal of the franchise, than the framers of the South Africa Act. They made no distinction in the political rights and privileges of the white and Coloured citizens of the Colony. The liberal men of the Western Province introduced no Colour Bar. In the clauses dealing with the franchise or with the membership of either House no such phrases as "of European descent" disfigured that Ordinance.

In transmitting that Ordinance the Duke of Newcastle wrote: "It is the earnest desire of Her Majesty's Government that all her subjects at the Cape, without distinction of class or colour, should be united by one bond of loyalty and a common interest, and we believe that the exercise of the political rights enjoyed by all alike will prove one of the best methods of attaining that object. "

Dr Abdurahman kept a close watch on even the more detailed affairs of the A.P.O This note is own handwriting says: "Dr Fredericks, the enclosed list of names are persons who have already answered my letters and to whom you need not write. Reag has the full list of branches to whom I have written".
Yours
AA
List of names on reverse side of letter:J.J.Fransman, Victoria West;W.Willenberg, Napier str.,Worcester; W.P.Theys,teacher,Montagu,W.Swapenpoel,chairman in Coloured Union, G. W. Crowe, Box 6481, Johannesburg.

That principle of equality was observed when responsible Government was introduced in 1872, and it was upon that principle that this Colony built up that which is now known as the old Cape Tradition.

Outside the Cape a different principle was followed. The method of dealing with the Coloured races in the Northern Republics was diametrically opposed to that of the Cape. In the first article of the Constitution of the Orange Free State burghership is restricted to " white persons in or resident in the State. " Such a condition is most illiberal when contrasted with the policy of the Cape, which by Ordinance granted the right to hold land to " Hottentots and other free persons of colour born in the Colony or to whom deeds of burghership" had been granted on the same terms as to any other citizen. Yet despite the exclusion from all citizen rights in the South African Republic the Coloured people were legally bound to be ready at all times if called upon by the Commandant of the district in which they lived to defend the frontiers against hostile action.

Further, in the Free State it was enacted by the Occupation Law of 1866 that " over all the Coloured people " in certain parts of the country where the Natives were settled " a white man shall be appointed as Commandant by the President " and that his salary should be paid by taxes levied on the Coloured people by the Executive Council of the State.

This narrowness was exhibited in all the legislation of the Free State, and the bitter intensity of race prejudice is nowhere so patent as in that Slave State even to the present day.

The South African Republic also began its existence with the same brand of race prejudice. In its Grondwet, Article 10 reads, "The people desire to permit no equality between Coloured people and the white inhabitants either in Church or State. "

In the Cape Colony there was tolerance and mutual forbearance, in the Northern Territories inarticulate hatred and sullen resentment. The first shock, however, come to us in 1902 when the Treaty of Vereeniging was published, clause 8 of which reads "that the question of granting the franchise to natives will not be decided until after the introduction of self-Government." The second shock came in 1906 when clause 8 was interpreted. Then for the first time it was declared that every one who was not of pure European descent was a native, an interpretation which was never, and has not since been accepted in the Transvaal except for that special purpose.

THE COLOUR PROBLEM

There now emerged what is called the Colour problem, presenting itself in the different colonies in various aspects. In the Cape where the pernicious principles of the North had insidiously crept in and had begun to take root, the problem, however, still meant the granting to Coloured people of the maximum of liberty, freedom and opportunity with the least offence to white sentiment. In Natal the conception of the problem was translated into giving the Coloured people the least opportunity and assistance while still appearing just and fair in the eyes of the people of England. The Transvaal, on the other hand, devised all kinds of restrictions to harass Coloured people without violating any treaty obligations; while to the gentlemen in the Free State the problem meant enslaving the Coloured people without the least regard to the opinion of the civilised world.

THE ACT OF UNION

Such was the light in which the Colour problem was interpreted just prior to Union. Thus those who took part in the debate that preceded the Act of Union viewed it. I anticipated disaster in that coming Union, and at a meeting in 1907 I stated that 'in a central Parliament there would be the danger of the policies of the North slowly creeping into our Colony and undermining our Constitution ... and that our European friends, numerous and influential as they might be, would not be able to safeguard the interests of the Coloured people. " The Cape delegates to the National Convention assured us "that sacrifices had to be made, but the rights and privileges of the Coloured people must at all costs be maintained. " But, as we all know, they did not manage to maintain those sacred rights, which we prized so much.

In time to come the Great War will be forgotten. It will be a memory without meaning, a dream of the past. It will be like the comment of another old Kaspar " Now tell us all about the war, And what they fought each other for;

'It was the English,' Kaspar cried, 'Who put the French to rout;

'But what they fought each other for 'I could not well make out, 'But everybody said,' quoth he, 'That 'twas a famous victory'. "

Some such memory will linger in the mind of the average citizen in a few generations about the late war.

But the Act of Union, which robbed us of a sacred human right, will never be forgotten by the millions of non-Europeans who will continue to inhabit South Africa, and it will ever be remembered by the hundreds of millions in other parts of the British Empire, until it is cleansed of its foul blot.

Some of the framers of that Act are still with us, and their work is still there. That document has condemned us to political helotry. We feel the stigma. They no doubt regret that they missed the opportunity of showing that breadth of vision and political wisdom, which would have won them enduring fame and the love and respect from the millions of inhabitants of South Africa. We appeal to them to rectify the grave error and to wipe out the stain upon the fair name of South Africa.

The Act of Union cannot be a source of pride to anyone. All the sanguine hopes which white South Africa had about it have been belied. It has failed to bring about the fusion of the two white races; it produced a sad estrangement between white and black. It was a blow to the sacred human right of political freedom. It gave a distinct set-back to the progressive spirit of the Cape regime. Many anticipated that a new era had dawned for South Africa, but the dark clouds that are gathering must convince everyone that those anticipations will not be realised.

We ourselves see in it the saddest drama of political immorality that has ever occurred in the life of any civilised community, and we wonder how the Cape Province and the Imperial Parliament could have consented to such a proceeding as the deprivation of a large section of her most loyal colonists, of their most cherished rights. That Act has accentuated the bitterness of the estrangement between the white and Coloured sections of the community. It has separated the people into two hostile camps in every phase of life ­ industrial, social, political. The black and the white races are now drifting apart, and the antagonism is becoming so pronounced that one dreads to look into the future. Sentiments based on race are now so openly expressed that one shudders when reading them. For instance who could conceive it possible that any public man should have the supreme audacity to come to Cape Town and utter such remarks as fell from Mr. Van Hees in the debate in the Legislative Assembly last session on the Native Affairs Bill , when he said " If called upon to choose, I would say justice to the white man, and injustice to the Coloured man. If I had my way I would give this country sovereign rights to deal with the natives south of the Equator." He concluded, " The old boers would save South Africa, and to have peace they should disfranchise every native in the country, as well as the Coloured man who should also be disfranchised. " Such a statement by a public man in this country of professed enlightenment should rouse the indignation of every citizen. He should not be permitted to pollute the atmosphere of the Western Province, the home of freedom and liberty and where the tradition of political equality is still perceptible.

INDUSTRIAL INJUSTICE

The debate on the industrial colour bar, initiated by our friend Mr. Merriman, served to show that our legislators are still determined to maintain an economic-colour bar in response to the clamours of the Labour Party of the Northern Province. These aristocrats of labour would base all their arguments in favour of the retention of the colour bar on economic grounds. They only pretend that the cause of all wage earners is identical, for they are maintaining a steel wall against the Coloured man in every branch of skilled work, and they are determined to maintain a white Transvaal at all costs.

In my first Presidential address seventeen years ago I denounced the mine owners for exploiting Coloured labour on the Rand. Today it is not the capitalist, not the mine owner, but the white aristocrat of labour who is the exploiter of Native labour ­ a greater exploiter than South Africa has ever experienced. It is he who would not allow the Coloured man to rise in the industrial world on the Rand, who has ousted the Coloured man from every trade, and slammed, bolted and double-barred every door to industrial progress.

OUR SOCIAL POSITION

But the social position of the Coloured people is ever more galling than their industrial position. Evidence of that exists on all hands. The agenda is full of grievances embodied in the resolutions. On our own railway the indignities that respectable Coloured citizens are forced to submit to be extremely degrading. In the Law Courts they are not treated with the same respect and civility as the whites. Even in the Post Office they are subjected to insult. Indeed everywhere is it patent that the vile traditions of the North are daily supplanting the benign policy of the old Cape days. Such a state of affairs will have to be changed ere it goes further.

EDUCATION

When, however, one considers the condition of affairs in the education world one is astounded by the damning evidence of injustice to which we have to submit in certain parts of the Union. From the latest available returns I gather the following; the statistics are those applicable to the year ending 31st December 1919. I find that out of a total expenditure amounting to £5,885,780 voted by the Provincial Councils for primary and secondary education in the four Provinces, the sum spent on the education of Coloured, Native and Indian children was only £451,448, though the latter outnumber the whites in population by at least four to one. When we look at the amount allocated in the respective Provinces to Coloured and Native education we see a glaring disparity between the Cape and the other Provinces. For instance, in the Cape the expenditure allocated to education of European children was £1,863,107, and for Coloured and Native £300,000; in the Transvaal the figures were respectively £2,251,087 and £67,320; in the Free State, £824,830 and £5,170; in Natal, £495,268 and £78,998. The Cape, therefore, shows, as one may expect, a more liberal provision for Native and Coloured education than any of the other Provinces; it spends twice as much as the three other Provinces together. It is well seconded by Natal, where British ideals of fair play have fuller recognition than in the Transvaal, the Province where the white aristocratic labour class have most power, or in the Free State, where all attempts by the Coloured people to improve the education of their children have been stifled.

The unfair allocation of moneys spent on education is shown up even more glaringly when put in another way. In the Cape, out of every pound sterling spent 16s. 10 1/2d. go to the white and 3s. 2 1/2d. to the Coloured child. In Natal it works out at 16s. 10 1/2d. and 3s. 1 1/2d.; in the Transvaal at 19s. 5d. and 7d.; and in the land of Hertzog 19s. 10 1/2- and 1 1/2. respectively.

The fact that 206,334 Coloured children were attending school brings little or no consolation, as the vast majority of them never reach the third standard.

Without going into details of our innumerable grievances, which are fully set forth on the agenda, I think it suffices to say that the history of South Africa, with respect to the treatment of the Coloured races, is painful reading. It displays a long catalogue of unrealized hopes, unfulfilled promises and broken pledges. Time after time we have been disgracefully sacrificed on the altar of expediency. So much inferior have we been regarded that it seems as if we had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Today, in this country, which has attained a much-vaunted higher status among the civilised nations of the world, four-fifths of its people are political outcasts and kept in industrial bondage in two of the Provinces, and still only half politically free in the others.

Where, may we ask, is the rising sun now of the Cape of Good Hope Ordinance, which once gave us full political freedom, and which was by its effulgence to dissipate the festering mass of mediaeval misconception? Where the cherished hopes of the framers of the Constitution of 1854, and the sincere wishes expressed in the despatch of the Duke of Newcastle in the name of Queen Victoria, under whose benign influence freedom was carried into the Cape Colony?

PRESENT INDUSTRIAL POSITION

What is our present industrial position? Every politician now admits that the material development of the country has been brought about by the work of the Coloured man. In the past they looked upon us merely as a very valuable asset. Now, however, some of them realise that non-Europeans are beginning to see that the whole industrial fabric of the country depends on their labour, and that with due organisation they could stop the working of the industrial machinery of the country whenever they chose to do so. The Coloured races are rapidly learning the fact that the one and only way to secure a betterment of the condition under which they labour is by their obtaining their due share in the political world. It is monstrously absurd to suppose that one-fifth of the population of a country can keep the other four-fifths in perpetual industrial bondage. That is impossible; but the longer the attempt to attain this end the bitterer will be the final stages of the struggle for freedom.

In my address of 1913, for which anathemas were hurled at me by the Press, I said "that if the 200,000 Natives on the mines were, in the language of the white Labour Party, to 'down tools', and prefer basking in the sun to going down the mines, if the farm labourer at harvesting season refused to work for 1s. 6d. a day, the economic foundation would suddenly shake and tremble with such violence that the beautiful white South African super-structure which has been built on it would come down with a crash, entailing financial ruin such as the world had never seen before." I was denounced for uttering such sentiments. Yet today we find others giving expression to similar views.

At the recent Municipal Congress, the President, Mr. Paul D. Cluver, pointed out that if the 200,000 Native mine labourers on the Rand were to cease working the mines would have to close down, and if the 100,000 Natives employed in domestic service were to refuse to work any longer the whole social fabric would be disastrously affected. He further referred to the increasing number of Coloured artisans, specially in the Cape Province, and asserted that there were none but the mechanical engineering trades that the Coloured artisans had not invaded. He might, however, look a little afield, and he will find that in Natal there are many good Coloured mechanics, and that it is a matter of a few years only before the Coloured, to white workers, in mechanical engineering will be in the proportion of their respective numbers in the population of the country. It may also safely be said that the professions will shortly be invaded in increasing numbers.

If then the prosperity of the country is based on our efforts, if the further development of its resources by railway construction, bridge building, road making, etc., depends on the work of the Coloured races, it is time that full political rights were conceded to them on the same terms as to those of " European descent. " Another ­ "No work without political freedom " , will shortly supplement the old cry of "No taxation without representation". Manual labour a few years ago was stigmatised as " Kaffir work, " and the pay for such was called " Kaffir wage. " Nowadays it is difficult to find any work that might not be called " Kaffir work. " In a few years the term will be dropped as obsolete, for all work of all natures will be done by them.

PRACTICAL AIMS

Everyone must admit that there is dissatisfaction among the Coloured people caused by unjust treatment. It is time that something was done to allay the growing bitterness of racial antipathies that is fast deepening, and to give assurance to the Coloured races that their political aspirations and their demand for industrial freedom will not be any longer unheeded. A note of hope in this direction was sounded by Mr. Patrick Duncan in 1913 in a pamphlet issued by him by way of reply to General Hertzog, who had just enunciated his vicious policy of segregation, and who said that "the pass system was as necessary for the Natives themselves as well as for the safety of Europeans." Mr. Duncan deprecated the vague references of General Hertzog to segregation. To drive the Natives ­ civilised and uncivilised ­ back into the kraals was, he maintained, nothing more than the old policy of repression. He suggested (a) that Europeans should revise their attitude towards the Native; (b) that they should treat him as a man; (c) that they should raise him in the scale of civilisation; (d) that they should teach him how to get a better living from the land, and give him reasonable security in the occupation of his land; (e) that they should free him from indenture, which binds him to his employer by penalties of the criminal law; (f) that he must be allowed to share in the influence of education and religion so as to have an outlook beyond the satisfaction of his physical needs and the performance of his task; and, finally, that he must not be prevented by law or custom from rising to higher occupations when his powers enable him to do so.

Mr. Duncan pointed out that with the rise of industries the Native would also rise, and the old policy of repression would be inadequate. In his opinion the Native in the northern Colonies was regarded as a tame beast of burden. Again, Mr. Duncan, on the 9th June 1920, in Johannesburg, in the same month as Van Hees attempted to revive the old slave policy, declared " that there is only one way to preserve the white man's position in the country, and that is by a policy of absolute justice towards the race that was under them. Nothing else ­ no restriction, no colour bar, no resolutions will do it. " It is some little consolation to us, therefore, to know that there are more men of the Duncan type in our Parliament today. It is to such men that we look to save South Africa. Unless such a policy is openly avowed and swiftly carried out I would not like to say how gloomy the future appears to me.

The Government can allay the feeling of dangerous unrest by taking two steps, which are imperatively necessary to the present time. First, the Government should at once make a definite statement of policy regarding the Coloured inhabitants of the mandated territory of South West Africa; and, secondly, the views of the Government regarding the removal of the colour bar from the Act of Union should be openly expressed. By such means they could restore the confidence of the people in the Government and reassure the Coloured races that the cause of their country is not a mere matter of individual or class self-interest, but is in harmony with the great moral forces which rule the destinies of mankind. Civilisation is still grievously incomplete and unconsolidated in the world ­ more so here than in any other civilised country. Never, therefore, have responsibilities so arduous and so urgent been laid upon the white citizens of South Africa; never have they been so free to choose or to decline the burden. Will our Government seize the opportunity or allow the silent struggle to gather strength and force until it is too late?

We have, by our loyalty, by our patience, and by our great work in building up the country proved our worthiness as citizens, and we are entitled to the full political rights and privileges such as we enjoyed under the old Cape Constitution. The time is ripe when we should have those rights restored, and we are determined to claim them at once. If they are not freely granted, I do not urge the use of measures of violence to secure them, but there is another weapon than open defiance of authority, ending in bloodshed. There is the peaceful policy of non-co-operation, which we could with perfect justice adopt. We are denied co-operation in the political world, and we are hence entitled to reply by refusing co-operation in the industrial arena. Just imagine the result of our adoption of such a policy! There would be a sudden and complete stoppage of all coal mining, diamond and gold mining, farming operations, and even the domestic system would cease to work. A little more organisations and that result can be easily brought about. But surely such a condition of affairs is dreaded by us all and will be avoided. It rests, however, with the whites to see that it is avoided. Our people have always been unswervingly loyal. Their military exploits during the recent war have been recognised. The non-European races of the world ­ whether Allies or German ­have shown how loyal they can be. Let the Parliament of the Union show them that loyalty is appreciated by giving them their just rights, and they will be loyal to South Africa as they have been to the British Crown. So far all the promises made to our representations have proved fruitless. That must be changed, and we are determined that it shall be changed.

We trust that the present party in power will appreciate the valuable services rendered to South Africa, to freedom and to humanity on the battlefields, and, lastly, to the Government itself at the recent elections. Much blood was shed over a little scrap of Belgian paper. Sir, a little scrap of paper ­ a sacred little scrap ­ was endorsed by Great Britain and handed to white South Africa in 1854 for safe keeping. It contained a declaration, of our rights. The Act of Union tore it to shreds. That sacrilegious act received the sanction of the Imperial Parliament, but not without an expression of deep regret. "If there is anybody," said Mr. Asquith, "in any quarter of this House, or even in this country with which it rested to frame the lines in this particular respect of the South African Constitution he would not insert this particular provision but would prefer to give the freest and fullest franchise."

Sir, we now await the decision of the Union Parliament to wipe the foul blot from the Constitution and thus repair the ever-widening breach which can end in nothing but disaster.

That decisive step will, we hope, be taken ere long, and I would advise you all to prepare yourself for that day. See to it that you do your best to equip yourselves for the just and wise performance of all the duties that full citizenship of a great free State means. Remember that political rights and privileges imply also political duties, and unless you are qualified for the due discharge of those duties it would be better that you should not possess the rights on which they are based. I would, therefore, urge you to make the most of your opportunities, however scanty they may be, to give to your children the best education possible. Aim at that even though you may find it necessary to make great sacrifices. Live honest, sober lives. Make your homes as attractive as possible. Do everything possible to encourage your children to practise acts that will lead to the formation of good habits and solid character. If you live good lives you will be repaid in after years by witnessing the honourable conduct of your children. Try to " learn the luxury of doing good. " A peaceful, virtuous life and environment will supplement the good work of the schools, and you will find the reward for such after many days.

If you will but follow my advice you will be proud of the position you will occupy in the up building of the great nation, which is destined to rule in our sunny South Africa. Act in such a way that your posterity will look back with pride to their ancestors. Prove that you have even from the injustices which you have borne so long and patiently learnt valuable lessons, that your nerves have been strengthened, your characters hardened, and your consciences schooled, and you will then be qualified to enjoy the political freedom which is now, I hope, almost within your grasp.